The Pulpit Commentary — Esther — Section 42

Ahasuerus embro.ced it nt once (ver. 4), end "young virgins fair to look on" (see eh. L orders were given nccordingly. The quest 11). began, and among other maidens selected by Ver. 3.-The hou1e of the women. In an Oriental palace tho women's apartments are the officials ae worthy of the royal consider- always distinct from those of the men, and ation, there happened to be a young Jewess, nre usually placed in a separate building, named HadR8sah, the cousin and adopted which the Greeks called the gynrecenm, and daughter of a Jew called Mordecai, a eunuch the Jews "the house of the women." At attached to the court, who had a house in Susa this was a large edifice, and comprised several subdivisions (see ver. 14). Hege, Susa. Hade.ssah was beautiful both in form the king' ■ chamberlain. LiteraJJy, "the and face (ver. 7), and having been selected king'seunuch," i.e. one of the royal eunuchs by those whose business it was to make the (see eh. i. 10). Keeper of the women. Strictly choice, was conducted to the palace, and speaking, Hege seems to have been keeper of the virgins only (see ver. 14) ; but he may placed under the care of Hegai, the eunuch have exercised a certain superintendence who had the charge of the virgins on their over the entire gynreceum. Their thing■ arrival (ver. 8). Hadassah, who on becom- for purification. See ver. 12. Such a. ing an inmate of the palace received the divinity lodged in the Persian king that Persian name of Esther(= Stella), attracted even pure maidens had to be purified before approaching him ! It would have been well at once the special regard of Hegai, who if the divinity had been himself less im• granted her ve.rious favours (ver. 9), and after pure. she had been "purified" for a. year (ver. 12), Ver. 5.-Now in Shushan , .. there was sent her in her turn to appear before the king a certain Jew. Hitherto the narrative has (ver. 16). The result was such as Hegaiha.d been a. mere story of the Persian court. Now perhaps anticipated. Ahe.suerus, preferring at last a. Jew is brought on the scene, very abruptly ; and the history is to a certain her to all his wives and to a.II the other extent attached to the other sacred books, virgins, instantly ma.de her his queen, placed and assigned its place, by the genealogy which the crown royal upon her head, and cele- follows. Whose name we.a Mordecai The brated the joyful occasion by a grand feast, name Mordecai must almost certainly be and a general remission of taxation for a connected with that of Ma.rduk, or Merodach, the Babylonian and Assyrian god. But it specified period (vers. 17, 18). Thus the may have been given to his son by a Baby- humble Jewish maiden, the orphan depend- lonian Jew without any thought of its de- ent for her living on a cousin's charity, be- rivation or meaning, perhaps out of compli- came the first woman in! all Persia- the ment to a Babylonian friend or master. wife of the greatest of living monarchs-the Another Mordecai, also a Jew, is mentioned by Ezra (ii. 2) and Nehemiah (vii. 7). queen of an empire which comprised more Ver. 6.-Who had been carried away. than half of the known world. The word "who" may have either Kish or Mordecai for its antecedent. It is simplest, Ver. 1.-After these things. Probably however, and 'TIWSt grammatical (see 'Dic- not very long after. Between the great tionary of the Bible,' vol. ii p. 419), to assembly held in Susa in Xerxes' third year, refer it to Kish. Chronological considerations n. c. 483, and his departure for Greece, B. o. also lead to the same result ; and indeed, if 481, was a period of about two years, or a we suppose Mordecai to be intended, we little more. The application of the officers must give up the identification of Ahasuerus must havo been made to him, and the direc- with Xerxes. The captivity which had been tions to seek for virgins given, during this oe.rried away with Jeconiah. There were at space. Ahe.suerus .... remembered Vashti least three captivities of Judah-the first With favour probably, or at o.ny rate with when Daniel was carried away, in the third regret and relenting. His anger was ap- year of Jehoiakim (Dan. i. 1), which WllS peased, and be.lancing what ahe had done m B. c. 605 ; the second that here referred to, one scnle, and in the other what had been when Jehoiachin, or Jeconiah, was me.de decreed against her, he may have begun to prisoner, eight years later, or B.C. 597; and question whether her punishment had not the third when Zedekiah was taken ancl been too severe. Jerusalem burnt, in B.C. 686. Kish belonged Ver. 2.-The king's servants that minis- to the second captivity. Whom Nebuchad- tered unto him. I. e. the great officers of nezzar . . . carried away. See 2 Kings the court, eunuchs and others, who had x.xiv. 15; 2 Chron. xxxvi 10; Jer. xxiv. 1. been more or less concerned in the dis- Ver. 7.-Ke brought up B:ada.saah, that grace of Vashti. Fair young virgins. Or, i■, Esther. " Hadassah" has been compared  40 THE BOOK OF ESTBER. [CR. II. 1-18.